What Does Acts 12:4 Mean in the King James?
And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek word for prison belongs to the same guarding family as the act of keeping Peter, so confinement is written as custody made into a place.
THE MEANING
A person is seized, confined, assigned to soldiers, and held until a planned public presentation. Here, being kept means military custody, and the verse leaves the outcome of that presentation unstated. The pressure lies in a life held under guard while its captor plans the next handover.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being kept does not itself mean being cared for: here the keeping is armed confinement in service of a ruler’s public plan.
THE ROOT
φυλακήν
phylakēn
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-
φυλακ- (phylak-, guard or keep watch).
The Greek noun φυλακή (phylakē, prison) belongs to the same word family as φυλάσσειν (phylassein, to guard or keep), the verb used for the soldiers’ duty in this verse. The place of confinement and the act of guarding echo each other: the prison is custody made into a place.
ALSO GROWS
phylakizō: to imprison
φυλακίζω
This verb shares the φυλακ- root and names the act of placing someone into guarded confinement.
phylax: guard, watchman
φύλαξ
The guard shares the prison’s root, linking the person who watches to the place where someone is held.
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
פסח (p-s-ḥ), pass over or spare.
The Greek text uses πάσχα (pascha, Passover), which the KJV renders “Easter.” The Hebrew name פֶּסַח (pesaḥ, Passover) is linked to פָּסַח (pāsaḥ, pass over or spare), so the timing carries the language of passing over even as Peter remains confined.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: to pass over, spare
פָּסַח
This verb shares the root’s consonants and gives the Passover name its language of passing over.
pesaḥ: Passover
פֶּסַח
This noun shares the same root and names the observance represented by Greek πάσχα (pascha, Passover) in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Guarding becomes protection or confinement according to whose purpose the watch serves.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:THE THREAD
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:Acts 16:23 repeats the prison-and-guard family, pairing φυλακή (phylakē, prison) with φυλάσσω (phylassō, guard or keep). The same vocabulary makes the custody structure in Acts 12 visible again: people are kept under guard as part of their confinement.
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